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Clams Deviled

A baked dish of clams mixed with onion, parsley, milk, egg, butter, and seasonings, topped with cracker crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Clams Deviled

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Chop the clams finely.

  2. Chop the onion and parsley.

Make the mixture

  1. In a bowl, combine the onion and parsley with the milk and stir.

  2. Mix in the butter and flour until smooth.

  3. Add the onion, parsley, and milk mixture to the clams and stir in the egg.

  4. Season with salt, pepper, Worcestershire sauce, and cayenne pepper to taste.

Bake and serve

  1. Spoon the mixture into clam shells, top with cracker crumbs and a little butter.

  2. Bake at 350°F (175°C) until heated through.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Clam + buttertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together840 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Binds the filling together and helps it set when baked.
Flour
Thickens the milk mixture so the filling holds its shape.
Milk
Provides moisture and creates a creamy, smooth base for the filling.
Clams
Provide the main seafood flavor and texture of the filling.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that carries flavor and aids browning on top.

The step that matters

Baking until heated through. The egg in the filling sets as it heats, so the mixture should be baked just until firm; overbaking can make it dry and rubbery.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (clam, parsley, milk, egg, butter, flour, pepper):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against clam, parsley, milk, egg, butter, flour, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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